History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 89

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682

USA > California > Kern County > History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 89

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WILLIAM L. KIZZIAR .- The genealogy of the southern family of Kizziar is traced to England, where the records of the ancestry are lost in the maze of tradition. In that country the family name was Kizziah and the change to the present form was made about the time of the immi- gration to America. It is known that James Kizziar and his father were Englishmen by birth, while a grandson of James, Thomas J. Kizziar, was a native of Alabama, the identification of the family with the new world hav- ing occurred between these generations. From Alabama the family migrated westward to Arkansas and William L., son of Thomas J., was born in Pike county, Ark., in 1847, there passed the years of childhood and owing to the poverty of the family and the scarcity of schools had the most meager edu- cational advantages. Guerrilla warfare imperiled the lives of the Arkansas people in his boyhood and the outbreak of the Civil war precipitated grave dangers. Although he was only fourteen and one-half years of age he thought it a matter of safety to enlist in the Confederate army. Accordingly he became a private in Company I, Thirty-third Arkansas Infantry, which went into service with one hundred and eleven men and finally was reduced to but four men. Their service was peculiarly dangerous. In the thickest of the most sanguinary battles these gallant young southerners were always to be found, fighting with valor for the cause which they had espoused. After the surrender of Vicksburg he escaped and found his way back to the old Arkansas home, where he again enlisted at the re-organization of Com- pany I and later was sent down to Louisiana under General Price. At the close of the Red river campaign his command was dispatched to Tyler, Tex .. and he finally was mustered out at Marshall, that state. at the expiration of three years of service, during which he took part in some of the most terrific fighting of the whole war.

About five weeks after being mustered out Mr. Kizziar took the oath of allegiance to the government at Washington, Hempstead county, Ark .. and then engaged as a teamster in the employ of the federal government. Soon he gave up the work and returned to the old homestead, where he assisted his father in putting in a crop. After the same had been harvested

William & Rizzian and Dannley

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he secured employment in railroading. In this occupation he had his share of danger and difficulty and rose to a position of trust solely as a result of his own perseverance, industry and sobriety. At first he worked as a brakeman on the Little Rock & Memphis railroad, now a part of the Iron Mountain railroad. Next he was made a fireman and then a freight engineer, from which he soon was promoted to be a passenger engineer, making daily trips between Little Rock and Memphis. His identification of four years with the same company was gratifying to himself and satisfactory to his superiors, whose confidence he won by his dependable character. However, it had been his ambition to engage in farming and accordingly he resigned his position, went to Texas and took a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres twelve miles west of Waxahachie, Ellis county, and took up the stren- uous existence of a rancher. For almost fourteen years he remained on the farm, but eventually the lure of railroading drew him back to his old occupation and he became car inspector at Cleburne, Tex., in the employ of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe railroad. While filling that position a most unfortunate accident occurred and he was almost crushed to death between two passenger coaches. The injury was so serious that it was fully six years before he had recovered his health and even to this day he suffers from the effects of the accident. It being impossible for him to do heavy work he returned to farming, his children being old enough to relieve him of the greater part of the work. After two years on a Texas farm he moved to Oklahoma and settled on an unimproved tract near Mangum, Greer county, where he remained for three years.

Upon coming to California in 1903 Mr. Kizziar secured employment as stationary engineer in the Kern river oil fields. For three years he re- mained in the employ of the Associated Oil Company. Since then he has superintended his ranch and also has engaged in the buying, improving and selling of real estate in Bakersfield, where he makes his home. For years he has been a devoted, zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. At this writing he acts as a member of the official board besides filling the office of Sunday-school superintendent. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons. In politics he has voted with the Democratic party ever since he attained his majority. In Texas in 1868 he was united in marriage with Miss Neta E. Burks, of Ellis county, that state. They are the parents of ten children and also have thirty-five grandchildren and two great-grand- children, of whom they are very proud. The eldest daughter, Frances A., now Mrs. J. K. Blair, of Texas, has nine children, Amanda I., Mrs. J. A. Austin, who lives on a farm north of Bakersfield, has three children. Mary Jane is the wife of R. L. Ralph and lives three miles north of Bakersfield : they have a family of three children. William L., a farmer living at Kern, this county, married Miss Ollie Hargett and has six children. Elizabeth is the wife of F. H. Newton, a dairyman living nine miles north of Bakers- field. John J. married Lillie Hargett. James S., a farmer west of Bakers- field, married Odessa Lindsey and has one child. Oda, Mrs. G. W. Taylor, has three children and lives on a farm in Oklahoma. Alvin M., a farmer four miles west of Bakersfield, married Pearl Stancliffe and has two children. Lulu married T. D. Goodpasture, of Bakersfield, and they have one child.

The mother of this family was before her marriage Neta E. Burks, and was born in Ellis county, Texas, the daughter of John Wesley and Louisa (Martin) Burks, the former a native of Alabama and the latter of Tennessee. The Burks family is an old Southern English one. The parents were mar- ried in Tennessee, where the father was a farmer and drover. In 1848 they moved to Texas and in 1850 settled in what is now Ellis county, where they ever after remained, the mother passing away at the age of eighty-two, while the father was eighty-six years at the time of his death which occurred

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Easter Sunday in 1910. His wife survived him but four months. Fifteen children had been born to them and the parents lived to see twelve of these grow to maturity ; at the time of their death their family, including their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and their wives and hus- bands, as the case might be, numbered five hundred and thirty-six.

CHARLES HENRY FREEAR .- A son of Henry T. Freear, mention of whom is made elsewhere Charles II. was born in Lincoln, Neb., June 2, 1872. and in 1874 was brought to California by his parents. Reared on the Kern county ranch of the family, he attended the common schools in the winter months and during the summer vacations learned the rudiments of agriculture as an assistant to his father. After he had completed the course of instruction in the public schools he entered the. Stockton Business College and remained there until he was graduated in 1882, after which he returned to the home ranch. In a short time he started out independently as a farmer. The first investment he made consisted of twenty acres of raw land. This he leveled and placed under cultivation to alfalfa. Although he had been obliged to go heavily in debt on the purchase, it was not long until he had the property clear of incumbrance. Then he bought an adjacent tract and this, too, paid for itself through the raising and sale of alfalfa. After a time he became interested in the stock business and fed the hay principally to the stock. When finally he had acquired one hundred acres forming a valuable alfalfa ranch, he specialized in the dairy business and maintained on the ranch a fine herd of Jersey cows.

At Old River, Kern county, November 28, 1893, occurred the marriage of Charles H. Freear and Miss Cleoria A. B. Crabtree, a native of Santa Maria, Santa Barbara county, Cal. The young couple spent the early years of their wedded life in Mexico, where Mr. Freear had been engaged as an assistant to an uncle, John W. Garlick, in the management of a sugar plan- tation at Tapachula in the state of Chiapas near the border of Guatemala. For three years they lived on the sugar plantation and during that period their eldest child, Cleoria Luella, was born. The two younger children, Laura Lorena and Charles Elmo, are natives of Kern county. Mrs. Freear was the youngest of four children, the others being as follows: Mrs. Cora Hobbs. of Old River; Mrs. Carrie Gale, of San Francisco; and Clyde, of Klamath county, Ore. The parents of this family, Ephraim Jasper and Laura (Foster) Crabtree, were natives respectively of Texas and Boston, Mass. About 1851, when nine years of age. Mr. Crabtree crossed the plains with his parents, following the southern route from Texas. For a long period he lived in the vicinity of Porterville, where he married Miss Foster and where he conducted a stock ranch. Later he engaged in the stock industry near Santa Maria. where he was bereaved by the death of his wife. Upon retiring from active cares he came to Kern county to make his home with his daughter, Mrs. Charles Freear, and here in 1908 his useful life came to an end.

Selling out his dairy farm in the fall of 1911, Mr. Freear came to Bakers- field and built three cottages on the corner of Chester avenue and Eleventh street. The corner residence he has since maintained for his family home and here he and his wife extend a gracious hospitality to friends from every part of the county. Much of his attention is given to the buying and selling of city property and farm lands and he is considered exceptionally well posted as to the merits of Kern county property. In politics he supports Republican principles. Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World, while his wife and two daughters are leading workers in the Order of Women of Woodcraft.

CASWELL AND SIDNEY WALSER .- Coming into Walker's Basin from Caliente by way of Piute one arrives at the ranch of the Walser broth- ers, with its herds of cattle and green meadows, a scene of beauty that lends pleasure and delight to the eye. Their father, Daniel Wagner Walser, a

Charles. H. Freear & family.

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pioneer of Kern county, was born in Jefferson City, Me., February 9, 1834. The grandfather was reared on the Yadkin river in North Carolina, where the ancestors resided during the Revolutionary war, taking part in the struggle for freedom, as well as seeing active service in the war of 1812.

In 1852 Daniel Walser crossed the plains with ox-teams, locating in Eldorado county, where he followed placer-mining with its ups and downs. In 1856 he came to Tulare county and there he engaged in buying cattle and selling them in the mines in California and Nevada until 1864, when he came to Walker's Basin, Kern county. He located a ranch at the lower end of Walker's Basin, which he afterwards sold to Walker Rankin, and then purchased a ranch at the head of the Basin from Williams and Wyatt. and continued the cattle business, buying adjoining land until he had three thousand acres. On his retirement to Santa Rosa, he sold the cattle interests to his sons, who continue the business. In 1866 he was appointed one of four commissioners to organize Kern county from parts of Tulare and Los An- geles counties, and in July of that year the board met at Havilah and ap- pointed the first officers to hold an election and divided the county into voting precincts. He has been prominent in different enterprises in the county. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Bakersfield, and with others he set out the Wible orchard, one of the largest fruit farms in the county. He married Mary Lightner, a sister of A. T. Lightner of Bakers- field, and of the union were born seven children : Charles and William. de- ceased : J. Caswell and Sidney Johnston (the Walser Bros.) ; Frank and Maria, deceased ; and Daisy, Mrs. Wallace of Santa Rosa.

J. Caswell and Sidney J. Walser were born in Walker's Basin in 1839 and 1871, respectively, receiving their education in the public schools, while Sidney also attended business college in Los Angeles. The brothers learned the raising and care of cattle from boyhood and became proficient in all the details of the business. When gold was discovered at Dawson in 1898, Caswell started for the Eldorado, going over Chilcoot Pass. On the way he was taken ill at White Horse, and after nine days arrived at Dawson. There for sixty days he remained in the hospital; after recovering he located and bought claims. In 1899 Sidney Walser made the trip to Dawson by the same route, and being ice-bound he walked the remaining eighty miles to his destination. They both followed mining. Caswell returned to Kern county in 1901, and Sidney in 1903. They then began the cattle business, leasing their father's place, and later on purchased the cattle. Of the three thousand acre ranch, about six hundred and forty acres are in meadow and under the plow. The ranch is well watered by streams and springs from which water is obtained for irrigation, and it is the consensus of opinion that it is one of the finest stock ranches in the county. They are not only large growers and feeders of cattle, but extensive shippers to the Los Angeles and San Fran- cisco markets, and both are members of the National Live Stock Association, and the Stoekmen's Association of Kern county.

Caswell Walser was married in San Francisco to Blanche Dunlap, who was born in Glenville, the daughter of Calvin Dunlap, a native son of Cali- fornia. Mr. and Mrs. Caswell Walser have one child, Wanda. Sidney Walser married Josephine Dunlap, also a daughter of Calvin Dunlap.

THOMAS E. KLIPSTEIN .- The Klipstein family is of colonial con- nections and descends from Dr. Philip Klipstein, a native of Hesse-Darm- stadt, Germany, and a physician of remarkable talent, who served as a surgeon in the Revolution and afterward engaged in the practice of medicine at Winchester. Va. In the second generation from his is Henry W. Klip- stein, a well-known cattleman of Kern county, represented alsewhere in this volume ; and in the third generation is Thomas E., son of Henry W., and a native of the vicinity of Warrenton, Fauquier county, Va., born February 14,

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1877, but reared in the neighborhood of Bakersfield from the age of about eleven years. As a youth he attended the Kern county high school and Woodbury Business College at Los Angeles, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1902. After a year with his father on the home ranch he becanie connected with the Kern County Abstract Company, of which he was elected secretary. Meanwhile he became interested in oil lands. With others in 1909 he incorporated the Eight Oil Company, of which he since has been secretary and which from the start has met with success in the locating of oil lands. Among the holdings of the company is an oil-producing property near Fellows, comprising one hundred and sixty acres in the North Midway field.

An important possession of the company includes several sections in the Elks hills, where valuable ledges of fuller's earth have been developed and where they have erected a mill for its manufacture. In thickness the ledges run from one foot to ten feet, thus making a most valuable deposit. With the development of this property and the management of oil lands, Mr. Klipstein found his time so occupied that he resigned his secretaryship with the abstract firm and now devotes himself to oil and real-estate inter- ests. An addition to his responsibilities is found in the handling of farm and city holdings on his own account. Quite recently he completed a modern, substantial bungalow on D street, and there he has established a comfortable home, graciously presided over by Mrs. Klipstein, a cultured woman and accomplished musician. She was Miss Louise Wilson, a native of Virginia and a daughter of T. A. Wilson, one of the old employes of the Santa Fe Railroad. Reared in California, she is a graduate of the Los Angeles State Normal and has a large circle of warm friends in Los Angeles, where she resided prior to her marriage, September 21, 1912, and where her family still make their home. In politics decidedly Democratic, Mr. Klipstein has re- cently been indersed by the state and county central committee, as well as Congressman Church for the position of postmaster at Bakersfield. On the organization of the Bakersfield Club he became a charter member and still takes part in the work of the organization, besides being allied with Bakers- field Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E.

FRED J. MARSH .- Many property holders around the city of Bakers- field have benefited materially in the development and growth of that city, the value of their holdings constantly increasing with the tide of advance- ment, making those fortunate owners well-to-do and prosperous. That por- tion of land owned by Fred J. Marsh, whose thirty-acre ranch is situated on Union avenue, two miles south of Bakersfield proper, has materially in- creased in value during the past few years, and as Mr. Marsh has ably improved it and cultivated the entire expanse to most profitable results, it has proved a most judicious investment on his part.

The son of a farmer, born May 18, 1869, in Beatrice, Nebr., Mr. Marsh there grew to manhood, receiving his training in the common schools and assisting his parents on the home farm. In 1891 he married Mrs. Rosetta Bull, and with her came to California in 1896, his desire to make his home here finally being fulfilled. He immediately purchased his present place near Bakersfield and has here spent his labors to his great satisfaction. Besides these holdings he has eighty acres below Panama, which has proved a wise purchase and bids fair to become very valuable in the near future.

Mr. Marsh is a Woodman of the World, in which he holds a deservedly estimable place, and in politics he votes with the Democratic party. He holds a prominent place among the citizens of Bakersfield, and has taken inore than a passing interest in all its affairs.

JAMES M. STEVENS .- The proprietor of the Old Panama blacksmith shop is popular among the ranchers of his district and has acquired a large

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business due to his ability to accomplish the tasks brought to him to the entire satisfaction of his customers. After coming to California he selected Kern county for the field of his labor and he has found it so remunerative and encountered such splendid opportunities that he has decided to stay here, and pronounces it to be by far the place of best chances for young men that he has ever seen.

James M. Stevens was born in Chesterfield, Macoupin county, Ill., on March 5. 1885, the son of Lewis M. and Sarah J. (Watkins) Stevens, na- tives of Buffalo, N. Y., and Medora, Ill., respectively, and worthy farmers, now living at Chesterfield, Il1. Of their six children James, the oldest, passed his boyhood on the farm, receiving his education in the public and high schools of his native place. In 1902 he started west and at Pecos City, Tex., learned the blacksmith and horseshoers' trade. In 1904 we find him at Carlsbad, N. Mex., following the same business. In 1911 he came to Kern county, Cal., and soon afterward bought ont E. D. Harrison's blacksmith business at Old Panama, continuing the business. He and his helpers are kept busy all the time, having a successful and profitable trade.

He holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Wood- men of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In religious belief he is a Presbyterian, and politically is a Democrat.

JOSEPH WERINGER .- Born in Vienna, Austria, February 3, 1855, Joseph Weringer came to the United States in 1876 and spent several years in travel through different states, stopping at intervals in Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The course of his extensive journeyings brought him a: last to the Pacific coast and he was so favorably impressed with conditions that he determined to remain, and since the fall of 1881 he has lived in Kern county. For a time he was proprietor of the City brewery, also was interested in a wholesale liquor and ice business for ten years.

Having been familiar with and interested in the copper mines in Michigan, Mr. Weringer was in a position to examine appreciatively specimens of ore brought from the vicinity of Woody. His faith in the copper was so great that in 1891 he removed to Woody in order to develop the mines. Since then he has done a large amount of development on the Greenback mine. Shaft No. 1 paid for itself from the grass roots down and its vein shows one hundred and fifteen feet wide. Shaft No. 2 is a vein showing three hundred to four hundred feet in width and at a depth of one hundred feet was found native copper and other very high grade copper ores. The first ore that he shipped brought no profits on account of the high freight rate and exorbitant smelting charges. The discovery that the mine was on patented land changed his line of operation and resulted in the purchase of the property by him, since which time he has secured better freight rates and has shipped over $40,000 worth of ore as shown by government reports and smelter receipts. In carload lots the smelter reports show more than thirty-one per cent copper. Through the purchase of adjacent lands he has become the owner of nearly three thousand acres, nearly all copper-bearing, and he is now the sole owner of the Greenback mine. It is his present plan to erect at an early date a concentrating plant, after which he will ship the concentrates. Eventually he hopes to erect a smelting plant in the oil fields, centrally located for all the mining interests of Kern county. In addition to being one of the best-showing copper properties in California, the tract possesses valuable deposits of iron ore as yet unde- veloped, also contains wolfromite, the highest grade tungsten ore.

Surrounding the mine at Camp Weringdale, which is located about one- quarter mile above the old Woody store, Mr. Weringer has platted a town site, has erected a modern garage and blacksmith shop where a specialty is made of auto supplies and repair work, and also maintains a general mercantile store. One of the principal attractions of the tract is a large hotel for the 37

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accommodation of the public, near which may be seen a large fig orchard with trees forty-four years old and still bearing. The grounds have been improved for the pleasure and convenience of guests. In addition Mr. Weringer has an orange grove, on which in 1908 he raised the largest oranges produced at that time in Califorma. Some of these weighed two pounds and measured eighteen and one-third inches in circumference. The ranch beyond the mine is utilized for the pasturage of cattle, horses and mules. For the accommodation of the stockmen of the district he has erected corrals and installed a large Fairbanks and Morse stock scale, which is arranged so as to weigh stock on hoof, or in wagons and trucks.

In shaft No. 2, at the second or water level, they have now struck high- grade copper ore. Ten men are employed at present and ore will soon be shipped to the smelters.

The first marriage of Mr. Weringer was solemnized in Bakersfield and united him with Mrs. Lucy Miller, who was born in Baden, Germany, and died in Bakersfield, leaving two children. Afterward Mr. Weringer married Miss Rosa Haberstroh, a native of Baden, Germany. No children were born of that union. His only son, Franz Joseph, born in Bakersfield December 14, 1886, is a graduate of Heald's Business College in San Francisco and Van der Nailen's School of Mines, Berkeley. He is a chemist of ability and is now assisting his father in the management of their large interests. The only daughter, Frances J., is the wife of Elmer H. Woody, a cattle man of Woody. In national principles Mr. Weringer is a Democrat.

EDWARD MAURICE TRUESDELL .- For twenty years a resident of California aud for nine years associated with the material development of Kern county, Mr. Truesdell is familiar with the remarkable growth of the past two decades and has been a personal contributor to the general progress by his own efficient labors. Although a native of Illinois, he is a member of a Kentucky family and spent much of his early life in the Blue Grass state, where his father, llarmon B., was a native and lifelong resident of Campbell county. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Ann Nicholson, was born at Lima, Adams county. Ill., of Pennsylvania parentage, and passed away in Kentucky. Of the thirteen children comprising the parental family all attained mature years, but only six are now living, Edward Maurice being the eldest of the entire number. Born at Lima, Ill., April 6, 1861, he attended the public schools of Campbell county, Ky., and at the age of sixteen left the home farm to take up the burden of self-support. For three years he was employed as a night watchman on cotton boats on the Washita river. Going from there to Ohio he was engaged for six years as general foreman of the Addyston pipe works at Cincinnati. Next he went to Virginia, where for eighteen months he held a position as general foreman with the Radford Pipe & Steel Company at New Radford, on the New river.

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History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 89

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1682

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682